News in Brief: A National Roundup

National Technology Group To Promote Online Learning

A new organization to support the development of K-12 online
learning, supported by two leading foundations with an interest in
technology, made its debut last week.

The 17-member board of directors of the North American Council for
Online Learning is made up of leaders of online schools or consortia
and state education officials.

The council will provide "collegial expertise and leadership in K-12
online teaching and learning," according to a statement released by the
group.

Administrative support for the council will come from the Western
Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications, a Boulder, Colo.- based
nonprofit membership group that encourages the use of educational
telecommunications.

The start-up of the new group was funded by the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

—Andrew Trotter

District Didn't Violate Rights In Petition Dispute, Court Rules

A Pennsylvania school district did not violate a student's First
Amendment right of free speech when teachers told her to stop
collecting signatures for a petition in opposition to a class field
trip to the circus, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Amanda Walker-Serrano, a 3rd grader at Lackawanna Trail Elementary
School in 1999, opposed the trip to the Shriner's circus because she
and her parents believed it was cruel to animals. Thirty classmates
signed the petition, but Amanda's teachers told her to put it away when
she was gathering signatures during a class reading period and on the
playground during recess.

Her parents sued the 1,400-student Lackawanna Trail district, as
well as several school employees, in federal district court in
Scranton, Pa., alleging a violation of the First Amendment. But the
school district argued that the 3rd grader was never punished, and that
she and her mother were allowed to distribute coloring books and
stickers dealing with cruelty to circus animals the day before the
field trip took place.

The district court ruled for the school officials, and in an April
15 decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
3rd Circuit, in Philadelphia, unanimously agreed that the girl had
suffered no First Amendment violation.

—Mark Walsh

Columbine Victims' Families Unveil Plans for Memorial

The families of victims killed in the Columbine High School
shootings have unveiled plans for a memorial to be built near the
school.

Organizers say the memorial to those killed in the April 20, 1999,
attacks will be built on about an acre in a park adjacent to the
Jefferson County, Colo., school. Twelve students and a teacher were
killed in the attacks. The two student gunmen then killed
themselves.

The 28-member Columbine Memorial Committee worked for three years on
the design. It will feature an inner "Ring of Remembrance" with
testimonials to each of the 13 victims and an outer "Ring of Healing"
with additional quotes and text.

Bob Easton, the chairman of the committee, said in a statement that
the panel would now seek to raise the estimated $3 million to build the
memorial.

—Ann Bradley

Tiger Woods Donates $5 Million To Build Learning Center in Calif.

Tiger Woods plans to spend $5 million for an education center that
will open next fall in California.

The $25 million Tiger Woods Learning Center will be open 12 hours a
day and offer academic tutoring in mathematics, language arts, and
science. Self-esteem and character-development classes also will be
offered.

Located at the H.G. "Dad" Miller Golf Course in Anaheim, the center
will be next to a 23-acre site that will be used for golf
instruction.

Mr. Woods, who at age 27 is already the world's most recognizable
and successful professional golfer, was a member of the Western High
School golf team in Anaheim during the 1990s.

The center will open under the auspices of the Tiger Woods
Foundation, an organization established in 1996 by Mr. Woods and his
father. Officials plan a campaign to raise money to cover the remainder
of the costs.

—John Gehring

Mass. Charges Students With Civil Rights Violations

Ten Boston middle school students are the subject of a civil rights
complaint filed by the Massachusetts attorney general, who alleges that
they attacked fellow students because of their race and ethnicity.

The accused—seven black girls, one Hispanic girl, and two
black boys all between the ages of 12 and 14— allegedly ganged up
on and verbally and physically assaulted other students, including a
white girl, two Afghan girls, and a girl from Liberia.

A Feb. 27 attack outside the 750-student Grover Cleveland Middle
School in the city's Dorchester section left one of the Afghan students
with a broken arm, black eyes, and bruises on her face.

The complaint, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, seeks an injunction
that would prohibit the 10 former and current Grover Cleveland students
"from assaulting, intimidating, or threatening any person because of
their actual or perceived ethnic or racial background."

The state attorney general's office also said the alleged assailants
face criminal charges.

—Darcia Harris Bowman

ACLU Sues N.M. District Over Teachers' Suspensions

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico has filed a lawsuit
against the Albuquerque school district on behalf of four educators who
were suspended last month for posting anti-war messages in their
classrooms or offices. ("War
Lessons Call for Delicate Balance," March 26, 2003.)

Filed in U.S. District Court on April 18, the suit alleges that the
teachers' First Amendment rights were violated. It asks for back pay
and the removal of letters of reprimand from their employment
files.

The teachers at Rio Grande and Highland high schools and a counselor
for the district were each suspended for up to several days for
violating the district's policy on handling controversial issues.

The district was in the process of reviewing the teachers' appeals
of the suspensions, according to spokesman Rigo Chavez, who called the
lawsuit "unfortunate."

—Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

Federal Judge Orders District To Allow Clubs to Meet

The school board in Boyd County, Ky., had not decided last week
whether to appeal a federal judge's injunction permitting a
Gay-Straight Alliance to meet at the local high school.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning in Ashland ruled on April 18 that
Boyd County High School must allow the alliance and other school clubs
to start meeting. In December, following weeks of controversy over the
club, the school board voted to suspend all clubs in the district.
("Ky. Protests Highlight
Increasing Visibility of Gay-Straight Clubs," Nov. 27, 2002.)

The preliminary injunction was requested by the American Civil
Liberties Union, which argued that the ban was an unconstitutional
attempt to shut out students who sought to form the gay-straight group
and violated state and federal law.

Bill Capehart, the superintendent of the 3,500-student district,
said last week that the preliminary injunction expires on June 13, the
last day of the school year. The school board is set to discuss whether
to appeal the decision at its May 5 meeting.

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